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ACCENT Paris: Gearing Up for the New Vélib’!

This week’s post comes from our ACCENT Paris Study Center, where Programs Coordinator Charlotte Munn discusses future updates to Paris’ bike-sharing system, Vélib’. Parisians will soon be able to enjoy electric-powered, smartphone-compatible bikes and many new and upgraded docking stations.

At ACCENT Paris, we are excited for the new city bikes!

Currently, Paris enjoys the city-wide bike-sharing service Vélib’, which provides residents with inexpensive access to bicycles throughout central Paris. Starting January 1st, 2018, Vélib’ will be getting an upgrade! Soon, not only will there be regular bikes available, but for every ten new bikes, three will be electric. The new bikes will also be much lighter and easier to use. Another great advantage is that Vélib’ is opening a number of new docking stations and equipping their bikes with the capacity to be returned even when a docking station is full. This solves what had previously been a problem for regular Vélib’ users: finding spaces at popular docking stations. However, these upgrades will require some stations to temporarily close over the winter.

The electric bikes can travel 50km before needing to recharge, and they can go up to 25km per hour. You will also be able to connect your smartphone to the new bikes and navigate via GPS.

Some Parisians are slightly skeptical of the new system and worry that the prices will increase, but we won’t find out until January 1st. Nonetheless, we are all excited for the new bikes to arrive so we can test them out!